---

Treasury

Answer

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether it is his policy to support an explicit link between debt relief for poor countries and the achievement of Millennium Development Goals. [105126] John Healey: The UK Government is committed to helping achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The Government supports the conclusion of the United Nations Financing for Development Conference in Monterrey, Mexico that future reviews of debt sustainability should bear in mind the impact of debt relief on progress towards the achievement of the MDGs. Debt relief will provide vital finance to help achieve the MDGs, but if overall aid resources were unevenly allocated in favour of debt relief, fewer resources would be available to finance poverty reduction in other countries perhaps equally poor but not highly indebted. It is important to maintain equity between the two thirds of low-income countries that are highly indebted and the other third that are not. The Government acknowledges that debt relief is not a panacea for broader economic development problems; even the provision of 100 per cent. debt relief to all low- income countries would still fall short of the resources needed to meet the MDGs. That is why the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for International Development have proposed an International Finance Facility (IFF) that would seek to double the amount of development aid from just over US$50 billion a year today to $100 billion per year in the years to 2015.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

105126; 403 c150-1W;403 c150W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Debts Developing countries Development aid International assistance Poverty

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk